Updates from our Cuckoos

No big movements to report from our remaining English and Welsh Cuckoos. David’s last tag transmission was on 30 October from within Democratic Republic of Congo. He is still in the same position, to the west of southern part of Salonga National Park, Africa's largest tropical rainforest reserve. Meanwhile, Lloyd’s tag signal confirmed that, as of this morning, 1 November, he is still in Central African Republic.  He has shown some local movements, heading northwest a short distance from his position on the 24 October, before then heading back southeast about 60km (37 miles).  Our English Cuckoo, Chris, remains in Congo, his tag transmitting in the early hours of yesterday, 31 October.

David’s tag transmitted on Sunday 23 October and indicates that he is still in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Looking at the map from last year’s birds, he is in an area much further east than any of the tagged English Cuckoos ventured. David is also almost as far south as the most southerly point received from the first year of Cuckoo tracking, this being from Kasper who was north-west of Kinshasa in Congo.

Over the weekend we received transmissions from David's tag who is still settled in Democratic Republic of Congo. There has been nothing further from Indy since 21 September.

Between 27 and 29 September, David moved 970km (603 miles) SSW from his location close to the border between Sudan and South Sudan. This placed him in some wet rainforest close to the Congo River in Tshopo District of DRC, a habitat occupied by poorly known animals such as the Okapi, a forest-dwelling relative of the giraffe, as well as the Bonobo, closest living relatives of humans, and a recently discovered species of monkey.  He didn’t stay in this area long, though, and by this morning (2 October) he had moved a further 570km (354 miles) SW to a location quite close to the southern edge of the continuous rainforest in Mai-Ndombe District. He has progressed by 1570km (976 miles) in five days.

At about 3°S, David is now the most southerly of the tracked Cuckoos and is nearly as far south as the most southerly tracked Cuckoo reached last year (which was Kasper at about 4°S). If he continues along this path for about another 160km (100 miles), David will reach an area of savannah habitat with gallery forest similar to the Teke Plateau in which four of the Cuckoos tracked last winter spent the mid-winter period. 

Having previously moved eastwards in southern Sudan, just north of South Sudan, we wondered whether David (and Roy) were heading to somewhere very different to last year’s Cuckoo. Like Roy, however, David has now headed off on a bearing west of south, back towards the wintering grounds of last year’s tracked birds. It’s not clear why Daivd moved so far eastwards first but it is notable that he moved across the northern edge of the Chaine des Mongos mountain range in northern CAR, whereas the routes of the other birds took them to its west, so he appears to have simply avoided the mountains via a different route. 

David transmitted yesterday and remains in the south of Sudan close to the border whilst Indy’s last transmission on the 21 September indicated he was still in the north of Cameroon. 

By the morning of Sunday 16 September, David had moved 728km (452 miles) ESE from the area in southern Chad that he had been in since 17 August. Although Roy also moved east of south along the border between Chad and Sudan about a week ago, the easterly component of this movement is very surprising – we had expected him to move SW towards the area of southern Chad that several of the other Cuckoos are either in or passed through on their way to the wintering area in the western Congo basin last winter. It will be really fascinating to see where he goes next – will he (and Roy) head to completely different wintering grounds to last year’s birds?

There have been no movements of note from our Cuckoos in the last few days. Transmissions have been received from Indy and Chance today and Lloyd, David, Wallace, Roy, BB and Chris in the last few days. Hopefully there will be more to report after the weekend! 

Locations received from Lloyd’s tag on 31 Aug still place him in west Italy. There has been no further information on Iolo but both Indy and Davids’ tags have transmitted in the last few days. David is still in Chad whilst Indy remains in northern Nigeria.  

Transmissions show that David has travelled only a small distance within Chad from his previous location on 20 August. He is, however, no longer the most southerly Cuckoo.

Between 15 August and 17 August David moved 500km (311 miles) SW to a location in southern Chad, leap-frogging BB on the way.  He is still there now (20^th August). This makes him the most southerly of the Cuckoos we are tracking – he is in an area of Sudan savannah which should be green and full of food for a Cuckoo at the moment, having been rained on in recent months.